Reliability and validity of a Chinese version of the Impact of Pediatric Epilepsy Scale

The Impact of Pediatric Epilepsy Scale (IPES) is an accurate, acceptable, and quick tool that assesses the impact of epilepsy on the child with epilepsy and his or her family. The aim of this study was to investigate its applicability in China. After multistage translation and cultural adaptation, the final Chinese version was administered to 110 parents of children with epilepsy to evaluate its validity, reliability, and sensitivity. All items contributed significantly to the summary measure. With respect to validity, all items were substantially correlated with the criterion questionnaire subscales, and principal component analysis indicated that three factors accounted for 72% of the variance of the scale. The internal consistency coefficients of the first and second tests for the total were 0.916 and 0.930, respectively, and test–retest reliability ranged from 0.891 to 0.992. Additionally, the IPES can detect differences in health-related quality of life (HRQOL) between subjects according to epilepsy severity. In conclusion, this study indicates that the Chinese IPES has good validity, reliability, and sensitivity, and is an epilepsy-specific HRQOL questionnaire that is a brief, accurate, and valid assessment of the influence of epilepsy on the child and family.